


Advanced B&E

by ReaderJane



Category: Stephanie Plum - Evanovich
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-02-01
Updated: 2005-02-01
Packaged: 2017-10-06 09:56:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/52410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ReaderJane/pseuds/ReaderJane
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ranger finally gives Stephanie that training session.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Advanced B&E

**Author's Note:**

> Timeline: sometime after Three To Get Deadly  
> Disclaimer: it's all Janet's

"Try again. Remember, you have to give it enough torque to keep the other pins from dropping back down. You can do it, Babe."

I bit my lip and tried to concentrate on the lock in front of me, but it was hard with Ranger's low voice whispering in my ear. He wouldn't let me use a penlight. Said I needed practice opening a lock by feel. What I was feeling was his arm around my waist and his breath tickling my neck. Not fair. These were not distractions I'd normally have to deal with when breaking into a skip's house.

I scraped some more with my dentist's pick and checked to make sure the back two pins were still set. I had no idea whose house we were crouched in front of. The bushes all around the front porch gave enough shelter to hide us from passers by, so at least we weren't pressed for time. Ranger's warm hand settled on my neck, and I bit back a moan. Maybe this was what the "advanced" in "advanced B&amp;E" stood for: not evading guard dogs or inquisitive neighbors, but having to deal with a partner who made my hands sweat.

"Relax." The hand slid to my shoulder and kneaded the knotted muscles there. Miraculously, I felt the third pin snap into place. The fourth followed it, and in short order, the rest of the pins. I eased the torque wrench around the way Ranger had taught me and was rewarded with the soft click of the doorknob turning.

"I did it!" I hissed in a loud whisper and turned my face to grin at Ranger. His mouth caught mine. I had to grab the doorframe to keep from tumbling into the open doorway as he kissed me, tongue and all. He broke it off and stood before I finished gasping, extending a hand to pull me to my feet.

"Now what?" I whispered, not sure if I meant the kiss or the B&amp;E.

"Now we infiltrate the computer." Ranger led me into the front hall, quietly closing the door behind him. We tiptoed through the dark house (well, I tiptoed. Ranger walked silently the way he always does.) and into a back room. Here Ranger flashed a penlight briefly, being careful to keep it low and away from the windows.

There was the computer on a desk, and an excersize bike in the corner. I tripped over something on the floor and caught myself just in time. It was a thick quilted pad, the kind a big dog sleeps on. Fortunately the dog was nowhere in sight.

Ranger put a hand on my back and nudged me toward the computer desk. I sat down and fumbled for the On switch. This was another area where Ranger had been coaching me recently. Slowly, I was getting better at pulling information out of other people's systems.

I ran through the routine he had taught me, finding the registry and the Passport information. When I had saved it all on the disk he gave me I started to shut the computer down. Ranger stopped me.

"I need to do something here," he said. I shrugged and let him have the chair. He pulled a CD from one of his many pockets and slipped it into the drive. The hourglass appeared on the lighted screen. The computer whirred as a program ran, but there was nothing interesting to see.

Bored, I took the penlight that Ranger had set down and started to snoop. There were bookshelves crammed with volumes. Dictionaries, reference works. Many of the books looked like several editions of the same stories. I wondered who lived here, and what kind of person was fanatic enough to collect so many copies of the same books.

I turned my attention to the wastebasket beside the desk. Ah, here was something familiar! The wastebasket was overflowing with Tasty Kake wrappers and Cheez Doodle bags. Whoever lived here couldn't be a bad person. I hoped Ranger wasn't doing anything too terrible to their computer.

The whir of the CD drive opening caught my attention, and I turned to see Ranger pulling his disk back out and shutting down the computer. He stood. I walked ahead of him out of the room and turned toward the front door. Only when I had my hand on the knob did I realize he wasn't behind me.

I looked back down the dark hall and saw him standing outside a bedroom door. I gulped. Ranger hadn't said anything about the inhabitants of the place we were breaking into. I hoped he wasn't here to kidnap someone and send them to a third world country. I tiptoed to his side and looked around his shoulder.

In the moonlight I could see a double bed, its headboard near the doorway. Two figures lay sleeping. Their chests rose and fell gently. I heard a rustle and a jingle from the floor. A dog lifted it head. It growled.

Ranger made a "down, boy" gesture to the dog. It lowered its head back onto its paws.

The nearer sleeper murmured, a woman by the sound of her voice. "Peter?" Her hand slid out of the covers and patted the sleeper on her left.

Ranger reached over the dog and smoothed the woman's hair back from her forehead. She sighed dreamily. Rolling over, she wrapped her arm around the man beside her and sank back into sleep.

I was getting really nervous. I tugged on Ranger's sleeve. He turned and followed me this time, back to the front door and out onto the porch. He twisted the lock on the inside of the doorknob before silently pulling the door back into place.

Once we were in the truck, I turned to him. "So what was that all about?"

He put the truck in gear and pulled out into the street. "Just some creative rewriting, Babe." I could hear him smiling as he said it. His voice sounded strangely smug. Ranger reached over and took my hand, lacing his fingers through mine. Weird. Normally he wasn't a hand-holding kind of guy. I decided to enjoy it while I had it, though, and settled back into my seat for the long drive back to Trenton. I watched the streetlights sliding by, their rhythm soothing as Ranger guided the truck through the quiet streets. I could feel myself start to drift off.

"Where are we going now?" I yawned. Not that it really mattered. I can pick locks, we didn't get caught, Ranger's in his zone and all's right with the world.

I barely caught his one-word sentence before my eyelids got too heavy to keep them open.

"Home."

~*~*~*~

Janet hung the dog's leash on the coathook and trudged back to her workroom. Eight hours a day, just like a regular job. Most days she liked the solitary rhythm of a writer's life, but recently it had been feeling stale. Her characters seemed to be in a rut, following the same patterns around and around. She wished they would take off in their own direction and surprise her as they used to do.

She called up the file for Baker's Dozen and jumped down to the new material at the end. Janet frowned. She didn't remember writing this stuff. True, she had been in a Tasty Kake-induced sugar high yesterday evening. But had she really meant to make Ranger invite Stephanie to the Bat Cave? Janet was contracted for at least two more books after this one, and it wouldn't do to put her characters into a situation that meant "forever" this early.

The dog settled onto his pad with a sigh. Janet started tapping at her keys, growing more excited as she explored the possibilities. She needed to indulge in Tasty Kakes more often. "Ranger smoothed my hair back from my forehead," she typed.

Yeah! This was going to be great.


End file.
